The winds of change are sweeping across Bollywood, altering its landscape. The differences between Hollywood and Bollywood are slowly disappearing, creating new opportunities for collaboration. Sony's Columbia Tristar Motion Picture Group has a dozen Bollywood films lined up for distribution. Similarly Twentieth Century Fox has signed a deal with a Bollywood producer Ram Gopal Varma to market and distribute his next three films in India and perhaps even internationally²⁹¹ While we do not expect any Hollywood studio in the immediate future to establish a full presence in Bollywood, we do see some immediate areas for collaboration, beneficial to both Bollywood and Hollywood. Some areas of synergy that could become driving factors in the future of the Indian film industry and reduce the chasm between the two industries are:

Digital Content Creation

The convergence of computer technology with filmmaking technology is radically changing the ways in which films are made. Digital content has become an integral part in Hollywood films. Films (The Matrix, Star Wars, Twister, Jurassic Park, etc.) with digital special effects have been tremendously successful. But now, digital content is phasing into even non-tech scenes, such as a snowfall scene, in which the snow is added digitally. Today, India is on the forefront of producing computer software through its highly skilled software engineers and trained IT professionals. By combining the two talent pools - computer software engineers with Bollywood filmmakers - Bollywood is poised to become a major center for digital content creation.

Idream Production has just completed an Indian fantasy adventure film for children titled The Power of J2M2 which is the first of its kind with complete special effects. This film is being dubbed in English for an international release this year.

Computer Based Animation

After the runaway success of Toy Story, many computer-based animated films are now in production. The producer of Toy Story, Pixaris, is also ramping up its operations to make one film a year, but is facing difficulties in finding highly qualified professionals. Makers of computer-based animation for films, TV shows and commercials can outsource preliminary production to Indian-based animation producers who can again use software engineers and Bollywood film talent to provide high-quality products. India's IT software and engineering savvy is spilling into India's fast-growing reputation as an outsourcing center for high-quality, low-cost animation and special effects. Ramayana, an animated version of the Indian epic, won the best animation film award at the International Film Festival 2000, California.

In fact, the costs of making an animation episode in India would be about one-sixth of such a project in the U.S.²⁹² Margaret Dean²⁹³ is of the opinion that it is an emerging trend where major animation studios are looking to outsource work to India. Ms. Dean further stated, "Co-production is the in-thing and surely is an interesting business which makes sense. Countries like France and Canada have taken some initiatives in this direction to encourage their domestic industry and it's time that India must look at the new business model.²⁹⁴

Although India is in the nascent stages of developing animation software, in-roads could be made into the U.S. industry by providing quality work and creative talent, of which India has abundance.

Pre-Production Activities

Hollywood can outsource some of the pre-production activities, especially those involving computer simulation. Costume design, visualizing sets before building them and simulating the movements of lead and supporting actors for a scene involving many characters in an epic film are some of the pre-production activities where Bollywood can offer high-quality service at a significantly low cost. Large chunks of the sets of the blockbuster film Gladiator was made in India. An art-decorator firm in Mumbai was hired to design portions of the sets for the spectacular Roman saga.²⁹⁵

Risk Management

Bollywood as an industry - now that it has formally received the status of an industry - is going through a process of structurization and corporatization pursuant to which local banks and other financial institutions will enter the industry. In order for these local banks and financial institutions to understand the project risks involved in filmmaking, Hollywood banks, insurance companies and completion guarantors can collaborate with Indian counterparts to help them learn how to manage risk in filmmaking. There is a huge potential for Hollywood financial institutions to enter now and establish an early position in this fast growing industry. In fact, as mentioned earlier, Film Finance, Inc., (a film completion guarantee provider) has formed a joint venture in India for providing film completion guarantee services.²⁹⁶